“All right then, honey.” I chuckled a little. “I was going to say you need to treat yourself more. Dessert is one of the little treats in life.”
“What about everything in moderation?”
“Not eating dessert isn’t moderation, Riley.”
She smiled and took another sip of her wine. “I suppose you’re right.”
“Hey”—I nodded toward the table next to us—“Troy just brought dessert to that table, and it looks chocolate and completely menacing.”
She glanced over. “Oh my God. It’s cake or pie or something, and it’s nearly a foot tall.”
“If it’s too much for you, we can share one.”
“All right.” Then she glanced away from me and concentrated on her soup once more.
I wasn’t sure I’d make it to dessert.“I so overdid it tonight,” Riley said when I walked her to the door of the cabin.
“You took about two bites of our dessert. I’d say I’m the one who overdid it.”
“Well”—she looked at her feet—“thank you for dinner. You didn’t have to pay.”
“I guess I’m a little old-fashioned,” I said. “I invited you, so of course I paid.”
“It was very kind of you. I…enjoyed myself.”
“Glad to hear that, Riley, because I definitely enjoyed myself.”
I touched her cheek, and though she winced a little, she didn’t pull away. Her skin was so soft, like the finest silk.
“Why are you afraid of me?” I asked.
“I’m not afraid.”
“Let me come in.”
“I… I can’t.”
“Please.” I leaned in and brushed my lips lightly against hers. God, already I was hard as marble.
“Matt, you seem like a really nice man, but I’m just not—”
I couldn’t help myself.
I slammed my lips down on hers.7RileyHe was kissing me. This gorgeous man was kissing me, running his tongue along the seam of my lips, coaxing them open.
I’d kissed before. This was nothing new.
What was new was that I actually wanted to kiss this man.
And that scared the shit out of me.
What would a kiss be like with someone I actually wanted to kiss? I could find out easily. I could simply part my lips and let him in.
He was so big, so strong, and though my feelings frightened me, I wasn’t frightened of him.
I should have been. He could overpower me at any moment. He could take what another had taken so many times without my permission.
Yet I knew, somewhere deep inside myself, that he wouldn’t do that. Matteo Rossi would not take anything I didn’t give to him willingly.
What would it hurt to let him kiss me?
I relaxed my lips and parted them.
His groan vibrated through me when his tongue swept over mine. My arms drifted upward, seemingly of their own accord, and found a resting place on his hard, broad shoulders. He was warm, so warm. I grasped his muscles. Then I moved one hand higher, let my fingers scrape across the blond stubble on his cheek. All the time he was kissing me, our lips sliding together, our tongues probing each other. And what a kiss it was. I wasn’t recoiling in repulsion. No, anything but.
I wanted this kiss. I wanted this man.
In a way I’d never wanted anything in my life.
No!
Quickly I pushed at his shoulders, breaking the kiss with a pop of suction.
His blue eyes widened, and a look of sadness streaked across his handsome face. His full lips were pink and puffy from the kiss.
From our kiss.
My fingers slid to my mouth. I could still feel his phantom lips on mine. His strong hands on my cheek, caressing me.
“Look, Riley…”
“You don’t have to apologize,” I said.
“I wasn’t going to.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t sure why I thought he was going there. No man had ever apologized for kissing me. Why would Matteo Rossi?
“I don’t think it’s any secret that I’m very attracted to you,” he said. “Are you attracted to me?”
Yes. No. Yes. No.
Yes, I’m attracted to you. But no, I don’t want to be.
I didn’t say any of this. Instead, I stood there like an idiot.
“What are you hiding, Riley?”
My mouth dropped open. Where had that come from? “I’m not hiding anything.”
“Bullshit.”
“Who do you think you are?”
“I think I’m a guy who would like to get to know you better. I think I’m a guy who is attracted to you. I’m talking majorly attracted, Riley. Surely you know what a beautiful woman you are.”
Hell, yeah, I knew. I’d been beautiful my whole life. Most people probably thought I was lucky. Personally? I considered it a curse.
Riley Wolfe, supermodel. Riley Wolfe brings back the days of Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell. Yeah, that had been a headline. A headline I’d been forced to live up to.
Apparently I was good at modeling. Modeling took more than just a pretty face and a hot body. Yeah, I worked hard, but I was also a natural, according to all the experts.
I didn’t say any of this to Matt. To Matt, I was Riley Mansfield, business ed teacher. And he was Matt Rossi, small-town guy who owned a few cabins and…was the most beautiful man—both inside and out—I’d ever met in my life.